Page 104 of The Wild Prince's Favorite
If anything happened here, Kein’s attempts to kill him would be nothing in comparison. He could handle his own dragon attacking him for he had his Dragon Blood to protect him and abnormal strength, but normal people like Lorey, Tievin, or Alezya would be the first ones at risk...
He took a deep breath. He had to keep his emotions under control. He wouldn’t let another “accident” happen.
“I know,” he finally said.
Kiera let out a faint sigh, clearly trusting him for now. They both knew there was little that could be done anyway; until they could communicate more with Alezya and understand where she came from and why, things would be at a standstill there.
Kiera kept glancing around with a frown now that her weapons were clean and back in their sheaths. Some soldiers had already come to clean the area, but she didn’t care for them. She was looking more broadly at the camp as if she was seeing this place for the first time.
“I can’t believe you pushed the North Army this far... Isn’t it a pain to go back to the closest village?”
“We’re far enough that they can’t cause incidents there,” he retorted, “and we send people there now and then. The journey isn’t that long.”
“That’s still, what, half a day with a good horse? And you don’t have many horses... Why, by the way? You’re not breeding them or what?”
“We were not breeding them fast enough,” Kassein scoffed, giving her a meaningful glance.
Kiera’s jaw dropped.
“Fucking Kein kept eating them, you mean?! Your dragon’s a bloody nutcase!”
“Has been for a while,” Kassein groaned. “Glad you finally noticed.”
“I thought you had him under control by now! He... He’s been following your girl around like a trained pup!”
Kassein let out a grunt.
He hadn’t told his sister that Kein had only started acting docile since Alezya’s arrival at the camp. Everyone in the camp knew, and that was partially why his men were utterly confused at the previously untamable dragon acting so tame around the foreign woman, but he hadn’t realized Kiera didn’t have that insight. Thus, although it was thoroughly humiliating to him, he told her the truth; that up until Alezya’s appearance, he and Kein had been trying to murder each other almost daily.
His sister listened, baffled, looking more stunned with every sentence.
“And you’re saying, when you tried to take her back up there...”
“We fought again,” he admitted. “Right away. He almost killed me, until Alezya was... harmed again. In fact, he probably only let me live because he went to get her back.”
“...Wow,” his sister scoffed after a beat. “Your dragon really is crazy.”
Kassein didn’t have anything to answer to that. He slowly got back up after cleaning his hands and sword in the snow and put it in its sheath.
A part of him felt almost grateful to his dragon for making it so he might not be able to live without Alezya. Even if Kein was a mad dragon, Alezya being the only thing keeping his dragon from killing him wasn’t the worst outcome... that is unless she tried to leave again. She hadn’t attempted anything since, but every time Kassein saw Alezya’s eyes linger on the mountains, that fear gnawed at his insides.
They had kissed, and she seemed to enjoy his touch, but how could he be sure whoever she’d left behind wouldn’t tear her away from him again? He wasn’t a fool. Kassein wasn’t scared to admit his feelings for Alezya, but he was scared of what those feelings could provoke if unchecked.
It was all fine when she was near, when she was within his reach, but the second Alezya was out of sight, something inside unsettled again.
A dangerous part of him wanted to keep her here, bound to him, by any means. A more reasonable side, the side that his mother’s kindness had raised, wanted to do anything he could to chase that sadness away from her eyes, forever, for good. But how? How would she have everything she could ask for down here when she’d left something up there?
“Kassein.”
He turned his eyes back to his sister, who had her eyebrows raised.
“If keeping her here keeps Kein sane for now... then fine. Let’s keep her here and teach her whatever she needs to be safe. At the pace she’s going, she might even finally be able to properly speak our language soon, and then, we’ll know what’s going on with her people. Who knows, with a bit of luck, she might turn out to be the answer you’ve been looking for.”
“The answer to what?”
“Kassian’s order,” Kiera sighed. “Pacifying the north?”
“Fuck Kassian’s order,” he grunted. “I don’t care for the tribes, and I will kill anyone who has harmed her.”
